Character Creation Example?

[Shaeffer]

Hello folks! I hope I've posted in the correct spot

 

I'm new to the Hero System, and still attempting to navigate my way through the Fifth Ed. Rulebook. I was wondering if anyone could point me toward a write-up of a step by step example of character creation, either as something I can download, or perhaps tell me where I can find it in the manual? I know the 8 Steps are listed starting on page 17, but I'd like to see a good example of how they're used all in one place.

 

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[sbarron]

I don't know about a step-by-step walk through, but here is the Genre by Genre Document.

 

http://www.herogames.com/FreeStuff/freedocs/HSGBG%20Final.pdf

 

It's in the free stuff area. It has sample characters from many of the most common genres played in RPG. It should help.

[Yamo]

Yeah, the document that he linked has lots of examples of completed characters. That should help at least a bit.

 

I don't know about a step-by-step walkthrough, though, since as far as I know, you can create a character in any order you want (characteristics first, skills first, powers first, whatever).

[Monolith]

I do not think there are any real examples on how to create a character. I think it is just a series of steps that varies depending on campaign type and players involved. The steps for me run as follows:

 

#1: Character Concept: Write down a short ditty about what the character is all about. The character concept dictates the basic parameters of the character: Brick, Martial Artist, Energy Projector, etc. It also dictates the character's motivations: With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility. No Child Should Have To Feel The Pain Of Losing Both Parents To A Killer. I Am The Smartest Man In The World And Must Use My Knowledge To Fight Crime And Help Others, etc. Character Concept also dictates the powers of the character: I was bitten by a radioactive ant. I am a mutant who can make snow cones. I am the Norse God of Strength, etc.

 

#2: Characteristics: Jot down the basics of what you want the characteristics to be like. Bricks have more STR and PD/ED, martial artists more DEX and SPD, etc. Look at sample characters to get a basic feel for what ranges each Archetype has in Characteristics. There are guidelines for the official Champions Universe in both CU and Champions.

 

#3: Powers: Decide what powers the character is going to have based on the special effects chosen in the Character Concept phase. If the character is the "Master of Lightning," for example, he might have Energy Blast, Ranged Killing Attack, Damage Shield, Flight, and Force Field as basic powers. From there you flesh out the extra things you want the character to do: Detect Power Sources, Lighting Flashes, Static Attack, etc. Powers are where most of the character's points will be spent, so it is important to have a good character concept and to not try to get too big with choices.

 

#4: Skills/Talents/Perks: Here is where you fill in the background and knowledge of the characters. What does he know, what is he good at, what are non-powered uses in the game. A good skill ratio can many times add a lot of good role-playing and character development to the game.

 

#5: Disadvantages: This is where you decide all of the negative things in the player's life. Are villains hunting him? Does he have a secret identity which he must keep hidden from his Aunt June? Does he take damage from a strange green rock? Does he hate criminals and must hunt them for killing his parents? Does he have a co-worker who is always getting into trouble and needs to be saved? All of those things define the character's Disads.

 

That is really all there is to it. Really the important things is to see some character examples from each archetype to get a feel for their ranges. A lot of this also depends on the genre you are going to be playing. If you plan on playing in superhero games than I would recommend getting Champions. The book has Archetype examples, Character Examples, and a Random Character Generator which gives good guidelines as to what each basic Archetype character should look like.

 

Other than that, if you are just wanting to wing it, I suggest you check out the Genre-By-Genre document to get character examples (showing average power levels for beginning characters by Archetype and genre) and check out some of the websites in the Links page. Those website have example characters which will also give you some basic idea of parameters.

[Shaeffer]

Thanks for the advice everyone's given so far! Something I've found by lurking about and reading this board is that everyone is very helpful when questions are raised.

I already have the Genre documents, and they are very helpful, but I guess what I'm really looking for is something where Player X has written down what they did as they created Superhero Y. I understand that I can use the existing heroes like Defender or Witchcraft for templates, but I'd just like to read an account of how someone like that was created.

 

Thanks

[Monolith]

Ok, here is an example from the Genre-By-Genre document:

 

#1: Eagle-Eye is a mutant who has incredible eyesight. To keep from experiencing sensory overload Eagle-Eye trained himself to be the best he could be. He has no other superpowers, so he is dubbed a mutant Martial Artist. An encounter with the Mafia is what made him decide to be a superhero, as he has a strong heroic tendency and a desire to help people. His passion to be the best, and to do the best has driven him to follow a strong hero’s code, and this has driven him to start a war on organized crime. Of course the Mafia did not like this and frames him for a crime he did not commit, so he is a hunted hero!

 

#2: Since Eagle-Eye is a fairly normal Martial Artist his characteristics fall within a certain range:

STR between 15 and 25, settling on 20: he is strong, but not superbuff.

DEX between 23 and 30, settling on 24: he is still in training and will get better over time.

CON between 18 and 25, settling on 20: average for someone that healthy.

BODY between 10 and 20, settling on 10: beginning level.

PD between 8 and 15, settling on 10: average.

ED between 8 and 15, settling on 8: average.

SPD between 5 and 7, settling on 6: average for a martial artist.

 

The other characteristics are really only dependent on where the player thinks they want the character to be (18 INT is quite bright, 12 EGO is about average willpower, 10 COM means he is average looking), and many of the Figured Characteristics are just taken at their base level (REC, END, STUN) for a beginning character.

 

#3: We decided in Character Concept that he was a martial artist with mutant senses, so we give him: Martial Arts (Karate) and Enhanced Eyes (Enhanced Perception, Night Vision, Targeting hearing, Radar). Those are his primary powers.

 

We then decide on his fill-in powers. Because of his Enhanced Senses we give him Find Weakness (his senses make it easy to find soft spots). We also give him a bulletproof costume because he will be fighting Mafia-types, and that means a lot of bullets coming at him. We also need to give him some movement powers. Because he is so athletic we give him some extra running. We also want him to be able to do those fancy martial arts leaps so we give him some extra leaping. Since he also seems like the Nightwing/Daredevil/Batman type we give him swinging (that’s what they do).

 

#4: We give him some combat luck to show that he is really good at avoiding serious injuries. We also give the character the classic acrobatic martial artist skills (Acrobatics, breakfall, climbing) that we see most of those types of characters have in the comics. Then because of his war on organized crime we decide we want him to be a skulker-type who works from the shadows, taking advantage of his Advanced Senses (Lockpicking, Stealth, Shadowing, Sleight of Hand). We then decide we want him to be a detective type like Batman who looks for clues about the Mafia and other criminals (Concealment, Criminology, Deduction, Security Systems, Streetwise). We then fill in the blanks with a profession and a couple of other skills the character might find usefull (PS: Writer, KS: MC Underworld, Contortionist). Then checking our point totals we decide the character should have a couple of combat levels to make him really good at fighting.

 

#5: As we run though the Disads we make decisions. He should have a girlfriend who gets into trouble from time to time (DNPC Lila Wilborn). He is hunted by the police and by the mafia (goes back to background and origin). He hates killing and could never bring himself to do it; it’s just not heroic (Code Vrs Killing) and he is also determined to stop the Mafia from doing any more evil in the city (Determined to wipeout Mafia). He is wanted by the police and many people know this due to newpaper articles and other talking about it in the city. This is very much like how Spider-man was hunted and hounded in his early years (Reputation: Wanted by Police). We then decide that he will have a secret identity so that he can fight his crime from behind a mask. Finally, because of his enhanced eyesight we decide that strong light attacks are extra effective on his optic nerves and that intense light causes him great pain and it takes longer for him to recover from it (Susceptability and Vulnerability).

 

Ultimately that is all there is to it. You define some simple concepts and then decide which powers and skills best fit the character concept.

[Pattern Ghost]

Heck, I'll do a blow by blow.

 

This is a character I made to practice creating a lower-powered, 50 + 50 heroic type for a science fiction campaign.

 

First off, I made some assumptions about the campaign ground rules. Normally, you'll get these from the GM (unless you are the GM). First, I'm going with 50 pts plus up to 50 pts in Disadvantages for the build total. Second, I'm assuming typical NCM for 0 pts for a heroic game. Third, I'm going to assume a few of the options like Hit Locations and Impairing are turned "on" for this game, so it's a bit more lethal than say a supers game.

 

Next, I decide on a concept. I'm going to go with a veteran combat pilot, a rough and tumble sort of guy, but not an Arnie type either. I decide he's the kind of guy who's down on his luck all the time, always looking for the next job, and might be wanted, probably for bad debt.

 

Concept in mind, I rough out some skills:

 

Combat Pilot, a no brainer

Navigation (Air, Space), another necessity

Transport Familiarity (Combat aircraft, space ships), another no brainer

Mechanics, to keep things running (figruing any ship he's on is going to need regular repairs)

Electronics, also to keep things running

Systems Operation, to know how to run things (ship's life support, artificial gravity if in the setting, navigation system, etc. space ships should have plenty of complex systems)

Tactics, he's a combat pilot after all

Trading, to negotiate contracts

PS: Pilot, for those mundane aspects of being a professional pilot, such as record keeping, knowing various regulations, etc.

Language: Trade Argot, this assumes the existance of some kind of pidgin language used by people for trading, but might just be changed to the second most common language in the setting, depending on what the GM has in mind, one pt for basic conversation

WF: Blades, General Purpose/Heavy Machine Guns, Grenade Launchers, Small Arms, Vehicle Weapons, ex-military, so he's got basic training in some weapons, though I added Blades b/c he's the sort of guy who'd have one stuffed down his boot, just in case the blaster gave out.

1 Level with All Combat, for his general rough and tumbleness and combat piloting abilities. He's no combat monster, but he has a level he can toss anywhere, which is handy.

Fringe Benefit: Starship License, going to need one of these if he's going to get work

AK: Spaceways Good to know where you're going. I could call this Trade Routes, Known Space, Local System, whatever. Just his general area of operation.

 

I also considered Gambling, Seduction (womanizing), and KS: Bar Jokes, to add some more flavor, but decided I didn't want him to be a professional at being rowdy, it's just a character trait. I also wanted to have some decent stats.

 

Next, I did the characteristics:

 

STR. Went with a 15 here. He's a big boy, and packs a mean left hook.

DEX. Went with a 14 here. He's a capable pilot, so he has good coordination and reaction times, but he's no Bruce Lee.

CON. Decided that a bit above average is in order, for dealing with G-forces, so I picked 13. Mainly settled on 13 b/c I want to buy up his BODY score (assuming somewhat lethal campaign), and b/c it rounds evenly and I like nice round numbers.

BODY. Giving him a 15. He's a pretty tough guy, and the setting will probably be low on resistant defenses and high on killing damage. And I don't want him to die.

INT. Have to be fairly smart to be a pilot, so I set it to 13 to get a 12- on all of those INT skills he has.

EGO. It's hard to resist buying a point of EGO to get that ECV bonus, so I gave him an 11 EGO. By concept, there's no particular reason for him to buy up EGO, but then again, there's not particular reason not to buy a point.

PRE: He's kind of personable, but not particularly imposing, so I gave him a 13 PRE. That gives him a 12- on his PRE Skills. This also makes things easy for me: Most of his skills are DEX, INT, and PRE based, so having them all at 12- makes it pretty easy for me to remember what his roll is with any given skill...they're all the same!

COM: I decide he's got rugged good looks, but he's no sissy model type, and give him a 14 COM.

PD and ED: I randomly set these both to 5. He's pretty tough, but he's not a professional boxer or anything.

SPD: I set it to 3. He's a good pilot, has some military training, but he's no ace. Just a working stiff.

REC, END and STUN: I used the figureds of 6, 26, and 30.

Running: I bought his running up an extra inch to 7"...why fight the bad guys when you can outrun them?

 

Next, I picked some Disadvantages:

 

NCM comes for 0 pts in most heroic level games, so I note that.

 

Next, I decide to give him a Psych Limit: Sticks to the Contract. I set it to Moderate level so he doesn't annoy the other PCs too much with the "That'll cost you extra" aspect of it. Of course, the "We got paid to do the job, so we're going to do it, even if there's an Imperial Navy fleet between us and the objective," part is a bit more noble, but...also inconvenient. Kind of helps define who he is.

 

I don't want a bunch of Psych Lims or really to have any duplicate categories, so next, I give him a Rivalry, another freelance pilot who's a professional rival, for 5 pts.

 

I give him a social limitation, "disreputable sort" to reflect that he's got a below average social status. I took this instead of poverty to reflect the down on his luck aspect of the character, because it sucks to actually be poor. He's just on the edge of poor.

 

I gave him an 8- hunted by organized criminals, more powerful, limited area. Probably limited to one or a few planets in the area he operates in. I haven't decided what he's done to tick these guys off, but can work that out with the GM when I know more about the setting. I'm thinking at this point, that maybe he found out he'd been tricked into carrying some illicit cargo and didn't want to take the fall for smuggling, so just turned it over to the authorities. (Not a violation of his psych limit, b/c that'd be a breach of contract by the other guys.)

 

Finally, you can't be unlucky without a die of unluck, so I gave him 1d6.

 

So, right now I have a good idea of his recent history, his motivations, and his personality. Enough to start playing. More background detail than that should be worked out with the GM so that he can best fit into the campaign world.

 

That's pretty much how I go about creating characters.

[Shaeffer]

Those examples are going to be a big help! Thanks for posting them

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Character Creation Example?

 

Bumping this for the benefit of newcomers.

[Arthur]

Re: Character Creation Example?

 

#1: Character Concept: Write down a short ditty about what the character is all about. The character concept dictates the basic parameters of the character: Brick, Martial Artist, Energy Projector, etc. It also dictates the character's motivations: With Great Power

 

Very well presented, Mono. That's the process I follow, too. I have little to add; just the caveat for new players that labels like "Brick" or "Martial Artist" are just GUIDELINES, not "character classes" in any sense whatsoever.

 

When transitioning from other systems, some players have a hard time abandoning the idea of "character classes". Remember, there is nothing wrong whatsoever with mixing types or not using types at all. Not using archetypes at all may make it difficult to justify a coherent characer concept. However, what do near-brick-level strength, superleap, clinging, danger sense, martial arts, swinging, and an entangle attack have in common? Ask Spider-Man!

 

I played in a Champions game many years ago with a GM who was used to character-classes. I envisioned an extremely strong character with high normal defenses, low resistant defenses, and regen. He'd gotten his powers from super-steroids, so I could justlfy only small amounts of resistant defenses from "dense muscles". However, steroids boost your recuperative powers immensely, hence the regeneration.

However, the GM disallowed it. "Bricks don't have regen. They have high defenses". I played a few times, but he was too clueless a GM. I wanted to beat him over the head with a BBB.

 

Hope this helped.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Character Creation Example?

 

Bumping this for the benefit of newcomers.

 

And for newercomers.

[gojira]

Re: Character Creation Example?

 

Also a bump and:

 

Monolith has an excellent example of how to create a Superhero. When I do a big tough (or fast, or whatever) character that's just how I do it.

 

Concept first, always. Then pick those big stats I need, add powers to fit concept, and round out with some skills, perks and talents. I should have a list of Disadvantages in mind throughout so they're easy to add at the end.

 

Pattern Ghost gives an excellent example of how to make a lower powered, skill-oriented character. Concept first again, then pick the important skills, perks and talents next. Round out with the characteristics, and again you should have a list of Disadvantages in mind by the end so just start writing them down.

 

I also do all my characters on a spreadsheet. Check the "Other Software" forum if you want a copy. A spreadsheet makes it MUCH easier to make revisions during character creation, which is very handy since the HERO System character creation is rather crunchy.

 

It's also common to load on everything you could possibly wish for, then add up the total, and see how much you are over the campaign limits. Then start paring back non-essential items, and reducing the levels of some things (skills, stats, etc.), until you reach the limit. This can make for a very tight, focused character build.

 

Good luck!

[LordSkatterhawk]

Re: Character Creation Example?

 

Hello HERO Gurus:

 

The ideas and explanations in this thread are all very informative, so I'd like to thank everyone for contributing. I could definitely use the advice and examples everyone shared. If you have any more step-by-step advice I'd love to read it.

 

I also do all my characters on a spreadsheet. Check the "Other Software" forum if you want a copy. A spreadsheet makes it MUCH easier to make revisions during character creation, which is very handy since the HERO System character creation is rather crunchy.

 

It's also common to load on everything you could possibly wish for, then add up the total, and see how much you are over the campaign limits. Then start paring back non-essential items, and reducing the levels of some things (skills, stats, etc.), until you reach the limit. This can make for a very tight, focused character build.

 

Good luck!

 

The whole "design on an unlimited budget and cut back" seems counterintuitive to me. I came to HERO from a class-and-level background, though, so I am used to saying "I can only choose one." Maybe loading up on options and then trimming back ruthlessly will be enough of a gaming system shock to help me build effective characters. I am glad you shared this idea gojira. I may just hunt down your spreadsheet.

 

Thanks for being so intelligent residents of HEROdom. This is why I have chosen HERO as my system in spite of the massive rulebook. (Or maybe I should say in addition to the massive rule book? I'm not sure which applies.)

[Hyper-Man]

Re: Character Creation Example?

 

Hello HERO Gurus:

 

The ideas and explanations in this thread are all very informative, so I'd like to thank everyone for contributing. I could definitely use the advice and examples everyone shared. If you have any more step-by-step advice I'd love to read it.

 

 

 

The whole "design on an unlimited budget and cut back" seems counterintuitive to me. I came to HERO from a class-and-level background, though, so I am used to saying "I can only choose one." Maybe loading up on options and then trimming back ruthlessly will be enough of a gaming system shock to help me build effective characters. I am glad you shared this idea gojira. I may just hunt down your spreadsheet.

 

Thanks for being so intelligent residents of HEROdom. This is why I have chosen HERO as my system in spite of the massive rulebook. (Or maybe I should say in addition to the massive rule book? I'm not sure which applies.)

 

 

re: "class-and-level" & "I can only choose one"

 

When making a first draft/design of a new character with a near 'unlimited budget' the process best corresponds to building the level 40+ version of your vision of the character's full potential. Hang on to those rough drafts as they will be usefull later when you have XP to spend. You have *near full control of what path the character takes in discovering all those wish-list abilities that you couldn't afford to begin with.

 

*I firmly believe that sharing your vision of a character's future development with your GM is just as important as any issues about how effective he is 'right now'.